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[Thermalsig]

Tear this one down for me and tell me if it's good or if I need to replace anything.
Asus Striker Extreme MB 680 chipset 369.95
Q6700 669.95
BFG 8800GTS OC 640 499.95
WD 250GB SATA 3GB, 16MB cache 94.95(Twin Raptors are out of my budget)
Vista Home Premium 32BT DVD 129.95
OCZ 700W SLI ready ps 149.95
OCZ 2x 1GIG ddr2 800 129.90
2,219.72 delivered. My budget was 2,200.00.
I already have an X-fi, but the on board sound on the new board is supposed to be pretty good. If it's good enough I will leave the X-fi in my old system.<- Comments on that?
Comments on what I should change? These guys are next door to my work and they have a 3 month hot swap policy. I have always built my own systems, but these guys will do it for free and will do a overnight burn in.
Only thing I lack I think is a good cpu cooler. I would like to do a decent OC on air and don't know what's the best for the money. Thanks ahead of time on any comments. Thermal

[keasy]

The hard disk mate, buy a Hitachi Deskstar. you will get more gig per buck and better performance, they often beat Raptors in speeds tests.

[keasy]

I know the intel chipsets get good reviews but I always think you can't beat ASUS boards with Nforce chipsets for overclockability.

[Thermalsig]

The hard disk mate, buy a Hitachi Deskstar. you will get more gig per buck and better performance, they often beat Raptors in speeds tests.

Hitachi Deathstar? I've always had bad luck with those drives. Has their reliability increased? Will have to check some reviews.

[keasy]

Ain't never owned one, but it's my next purchase.
They get rave reviews over here in The U.K. I know that much.


LOLS @ Deathstar 

[Thermalsig]

Ok, my system has been revised and it's more for cheaper. So any comments on the new proposal to the finance minister?
P5K-139.99
Q6600 289.99
BFG 8800GTS 320 309.99 or 8800GTS 640 for 399.99
WD Sata 250GB, 16MB cachex2 135.99
Enermax Infiniti 650W 189.99
Vista Home Premium 32BT-129.00, 64Bt 149.00
Corsair XMS 800x2 159.00 or x4 at 318.00
and
YEHAW! A brand new Samsung 226BW 22"WS -319.00
for a total of 1832.00, or with the extras 2101.95(boosted vid, 4 GB of memory)

[keasy]

why TF are you buying Vista ?


Where's the slap you emote ?

[Psychomech]

Don't bother with the extra memory, unless you are going to go for the 64 bit version of Vista. 32 bit versions of windows won't recognise more than 3 gig. The motherboard will have a facility to remap the rest, but you won't actually be able to use it for anything useful in windows. Which leaves you with the decision of what will be faster, 3 gig of RAM or 2 gig in dual channel mode? 
I personally have 4 gig in mine and just allow windows to use the three that it sees, so if anybody has a solution to this problem (other than going to 64 bit Vista), I would be interested in hearing it. I am dual booting into either XP Pro, which I use 99% of the time, and Vista ultimate.
I also have the BFG 640MB version of the 8800GTS and can highly recommend it. It goes like shit off a stick. 

[Thermalsig]

I'm gonna buy Vista now and dual boot XP. I want to have Vista up and running with most of the bugs that pertain to my system(as opposed to software)worked out so I can run Crysis and UT3 when they hit and get unbugged. I am thinking of running the 64bit version of Vista. With in 3 years, most software will be 64bitand I don't want to buy the 64bit upgrade for Vista32. This system has to last me at least 2 years, so I'm trying to future proof as much as possible. Shit, I'm running a single core with an AGP slot right now, so anything is going to be a kick in the pants.

[keasy]

Fair do's. But buy it ?

 

[corrodedmonkee]

However much you try to future proof, it'll never be good in the future hehe

Out of interest, if you are into future proofing a bit, i'd be looking at the AMD route... it seems the Barcelonas could be kick arse, and the c2d/q line is the last of 775 (so new socket time )

[Thermalsig]

However much you try to future proof, it'll never be good in the future hehe

I was speaking mostly to the software.

Out of interest, if you are into future proofing a bit, i'd be looking at the AMD route... it seems the Barcelonas could be kick arse, and the c2d/q line is the last of 775 (so new socket time )

I have always been an AMD fan and would go that route if I thought it was feasible in my buying time line. I like the looks of the Phenom processors with quad cores on a single wafer, but the major disadvantage of them is going to be initial chipset support. Intel has had a year and is it's third(fouth?) generations of motherboards. I see that as a huge advantage initially for them. By the time AMD has all it's vendor chipsets really cranking, Intel will have dropped the new chipset with the on chip memory controller that gave AMD the advantage for so long. So I thinking it will boil down to price for performance that will drive that market. I'm glad that AMD is fixing to really be in the hunt again, but for this next big purchase I'm going to go with Intel with it's P35 chipstet. Who knows, maybe the P38's will actually be ready on time and I will go that route.

[keasy]

Phenom's ultimately just a re branding anyway.

[Thermalsig]

Phenom's ultimately just a re branding anyway.

Hmmm, and the core duo's not? I'm thinking Pentium M's here. There's no new architecture on any of the processor's,other than the Phenom's being produced on one die. Intel's going to a 45nm process,but still no architectual difference till Intel's next gen and like I said, that just amounts to a on chip memory controller. I'm just going for the best at the time of my purchase, and I don't see anything from AMD that will be viable to outrun Intel for at least 6 months or better.

[Davie]

Good luck on the dual booting part thermalsig as i've found it to be a pain. vista uses a different boot process than the legacy ones and it seems to be pretty hard to get one to recognise the other at the boot screen without actually changing the first boot drive in the bios.